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  3. Rise of Civilizations and Empires Historians often write

Rise of Civilizations and Empires Historians often write

游客2024-05-04  10
问题                     Rise of Civilizations and Empires
    Historians often write of world history in terms of the development of civilizations defined by a characteristic empire. What defines an empire and what does the building of empire suggested? The regions of Mesopotamia, Egypt(the Nile Valley), and the Indus Valley are three rich areas for studying how people and ideas come together to create civilizations and empires.

    Imagine three spaces that are sparsely populated, yet well watered and fertile, in a time before written history. Two are river valleys, another lies between two rivers forming a rich plain. Imagine that humans settle in these regions and domesticate plants and animals. The domestication made possible by these river territories and the success of that domestication — farming and grazing — lure increasingly greater human and animal migration to these spaces. As these populations increase, so do their needs. These needs give rise to the social and political economic formations that characterize the ancient urban spaces and states of Mesopotamia, the Indus and Nile valleys.
    Mesopotamian, Egyptian, and Indus Valley civilizations are noted for their dense populations, urbanization processes, and cultural innovation. These elements are tied to the growth of commerce and broader cultural interaction. That is, as empires these civilizations can be thought of as collections of peoples, goods, and ideas whose existence and dynamism were built on movement and exchange.
    The initial formation of these civilizations is based on the movement of peoples into the river valleys and plains. They often described their environments as god-like and characterized their nearby rivers as life-giving. The transformation of these valleys and plains into places capable of physically nurturing the various peoples who moved into them was one of the first acts of cultural innovation and exchange. The use of these valleys’ soil and water was signs of innovation and exchange. For the Mesopotamians, the key to making the land fertile was the technology of irrigation. In fact, irrigation became the key feature of the civilization. As a result of the need for irrigation, religious and legal codes in many Mesopotamian societies focused on water use.
    Egypt and the Nile Valley civilizations were defined by the rich alluvial soils(冲击土)that annual floods deposited along the Nile banks and in the delta and flood plains. The use of water and the timing of flood seasons gave rise to a number of technological innovations, such as the calendar. These cultural and technological innovations also guaranteed the growth of large populations and increased the possibility that some of those populations would be located in central urban centers.
    These societies’ agricultural and ecological technologies drew immigrants and travelers who often brought foods and ideas that contributed to the culture of these civilizations. The ability of these areas to sustain population — an ability that can be thought of as a richness—attracted more peoples.
    Some of these people entered the areas peaceably. Others used force to maintain or expand geographic and cultural spaces, indicating imperial activity. An interesting pattern emerging here in some urban centers was constructed to protect against invading forces, and seen in the walled settlements of the Indus Valley and early Mesopotamia. However, as much as these walled settlements repelled invaders, they also attracted them. The river valleys and the plains, and their agricultural richness, supported the formation of cities. The cities became emblems of their respective empires and either allowed for the extension of the empire or resisted the threats of other powers.
    The historical activities of the Indus Valley, Mesopotamia, and Egypt indicate that various peoples moved in and out, contested the regions’ spaces, and sought to control other peoples, their goods and their resources. This interaction had profound consequences on how those involved thought about themselves and each other. Their ideas were tested, challenged, and in many instances, changed. These regions’ cities probably were seen as symbols of wealth; therefore, groups in and outside of the region often sought to control them. Richness is understood as the population’s ability to produce goods and services in quantity not just agriculture, but skills such as metal working, pottery, or commerce. Thus, richness in population meant surpluses allowed the cities and the areas they controlled to support a ruling and administrative class, and maybe an army. Frequently, product surpluses were exchanged, providing wealth for the area and drawing other peoples to it. The Indus Valley, Mesopotamia, and Egypt all experienced the results of a rich and productive population.
    New language patterns, such as the early substitution of the Akkadian tongue for Sumerian, demonstrate the innovations encouraged by movement and exchange. The gathering of peoples, languages, and cultures was part of the creation of a world view, though, a limited one.
    By 700 BC, the extent of the Assyrian Empire literally limited it to the activities of the Egyptian quest for empire status. That linkage can be expressed as interaction and exchange. Diplomatic exchange as well as military struggle resolved conflict over the empires’ boundaries and areas of control. Marriage was a highly visible form of diplomacy and amounted to an exchange between ruling families that linked them politically and economically. These arrangements often resulted in the cessation of hostilities, greater regional stability, and greater economic exchange. Marriages across the ruling classes of these societies offer one way to conceptualize the world. Political marriages and royal hostages both provided for the sharing of culture across religious and ethnic divisions and differences that may well have contributed to humankind’s history.
    Movement and interaction also are seen in the clash of armies, which may have meant technological and cultural innovation. For instance, many historians believe that the clash between the Hyksos and Egyptians resulted in the exchange of important military innovations for the Egyptians. Through this conflict, the Egyptians discovered the advantages of iron weaponry over bronze and the superiority of the chariot(二轮战车)as an assault weapon.
    Within the movement and exchange that epitomized(集中体现)the Indus, Meso-potamian, and Nile civilizations, rising empires imposed a stability that occasionally resulted in greater interaction between states and peoples because of the inherent security of the empire. The most striking example of this greater interaction is trade. Many scholars argue that the collection of peoples in certain areas and changes in demographic(人口的)concentration are related to patterns of trade. Urban growth can be explained by looking at the spaces where trade was possible and the ways in which that trade might have drawn together people and their goods or services. Those spaces necessitated some authority to provide order and security.
    The goods and security offered by these urban spaces lured the merchants not only to travel from place to place carrying goods and ideas but also often to become residents in distant places, establishing new communities within communities. At times, some of these merchants served as ambassadors. They presented information that was important to maintaining good relations between their home societies and those they adopted through trade.
    We might select any of the remarkable points of these three areas and see them replicated in some form across the others. The reason for this replication, and its differences, reiterates(重申)that the establishment of empires, and the civilizations they represented, was not the creation of discrete imperial space so much as a way of ordering interaction between possible discrete spaces.
    The structures of these civilizations—these empires, states, cities — did not stop the interaction and the flow of goods, people, and ideas. On the contrary, they encouraged it. That encouragement resulted in the earliest formations of what has been called the Afro-Eurasian Old World — the interaction between the Indus, Mesopotamian, and Nile river systems. [br] Due to the need for irrigation, in Mesopotamia______.
选项 A、most cultures of the societies focused on water use
B、people invented the technology of irrigation
C、many religious and legal codes centered on water use
D、people planted their crops along the river
答案 C
解析 最后一句说鉴于对灌溉的需要，许多美索不达米亚社会的宗教和法律规范都特别关注水的使用。容易得出答案为[C]。
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